A gunman suspected of killing at least eight people in Serbia on Thursday has been arrested, after a massive overnight manhunt involving hundreds of special forces, according to a spokesperson from Serbia’s Interior Ministry.
The suspect was identified by authorities as a 21-year-old male named Uros B.
The massacre took place 11 p.m. Thursday night, according to the country’s Interior Ministry – the country’s second mass shooting in just two days.
The attacker was in a vehicle with two other people, and got out before opening fire with an automatic weapon in the village of Dubona, about 60 kilometers (about 37 miles) southeast of the Serbian capital Belgrade, according to CNN affiliate N1 and public broadcaster RTS.
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He then fled the scene, before later opening fire in the villages of Mali Orasje and Sepsin.
The three locations are all in the Mladenovac municipality of Serbia.
More than 600 members of Serbian Special Forces were deployed to search for the suspect, according to the public broadcaster RTS, with authorities deploying helicopters and thermal imaging cameras. All special police units were engaged, including an anti-terrorism unit, helicopter unit, and police forces from the cities of Belgrade and Smederevo.
Photos shared by the Ministry showed Interior Minister Gasic at the scene. The Interior Ministry confirmed to CNN that they are treating this incident as an act of domestic terrorism, but did not specify more details.
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A police officer and his sister were among those killed, according to local media.
Relatives of the injured are arriving at the Emergency Center in Mladenovac, N1 reported.
Images show ambulances passing through checkpoints manned by armed security forces, and police cars blocking off nearby roads. On the highway between Dubona and the Serbian capital Belgrade, police cars line the side of the road as officers carry out a search in the early dawn hours.
This comes a day after the Balkan country was rocked by news of a 13-year-old boy opening fire on classmates at a school in the capital Belgrade. That shooting left at least eight children dead, along with a security guard.
Until this week, mass shootings were rare in Serbia, despite the country’s high rate of gun ownership. Serbia has the highest level of civilian gun ownership in Europe, and the fifth-highest in the world – a legacy of years of conflict in the 1990s.
